Tuesday, February 06, 2007

How Many Units ??? --

One of the questions which I have has to do with how many units I should plan on painting for the Army of Saxe-Bearstein.

Since one of the purposes of having imaginary countries is the creation (over time) of unit histories. I don't want to have so many units that they lose their individuality among the masses of other units.

On the other hand, I don't want to have so few that every battle taps the same units. I'd like to find a happy medium.

So, let me hear from you out there . . . how many units would be enough without being too many?


-- Jeff

6 comments:

MurdocK said...

ANY! From 1 miniature to 1000's!

It all depends on the 'rule' system and budget of the players involved.

If 'leader' figures count as part of the concept then that may be a starting point to get a new player involved. Let them get a 'colonel' for a unit and lend them the troops.

When it comes to 'independant commands' then I suggest the brigade as the most common tactical unit. But then a battalion can be a starting point.

As far as 'long term' number of units, then you are looking at a small army. 2 Brigades of infantry, 1 major formation of cavalry and maybe a train of artillery (something more than a few battalion guns).

This way the players can have more than 1 or 2 things to move each turn when their 'army' is in action.

In the end, the aim is to get more players involved. Start small and work towards a larger aim.

Having a start with a colonel in charge of a battalion coming from the new player can get the dice rolling!

marinergrim said...

Is there ever going to be answer for that question Jeff?

The original plan for my WSS French was for 10 battalions of line, 1 combined grenadier battalion, 10 sqaudrons of line horse & 4 squadrons of elite horse, with 4 pieces of artillery. All bought en masse and fielded. They stayed that way for around seven years.
then there began a second wave of recruiting and the army effectively doubled in number and is now only curbed by the budget constraints imposed.

But we (Mark & I) both started with around 10 battalions and 10 squadrons.

MiniWargamer said...

I have to admit that I tend to start a period looking for figures I like after deciding on the nationality I like. This was pretty easy for the fictional countries setting. I *wanted* a Spencer Smith Regiment or two. I *wanted* some RSM, and so on. I then kinda sorta came up with the plan of two small nations fighting augmented by mercenaries. I could then expand as my interest grew (or not). I had one digression which was into Old Glory Indians as they came along at a good price and gave me an excuse to paint some stuff up that could *start* the wars in this era. Right now I have settled on a large brigade of infantry (3-4 regiments or battalions), a battery or two, and a couple of cavalry regiments for each nationality.

Bluebear Jeff said...

Gentlemen,

Thank you for your good responses. Please continue your ideas and feedback.


-- Jeff

Snickering Corpses said...

Stollen posted a reply to this on his own blog, as Blogger doesn't want to let him reply to you.

As for myself, my own SYW army will initially be largely limited by budget constraints. On the other hand, the fine state of Hesse-Engelburg is actually recruiting their first standing army after relying upon volunteer militias and perhaps mercenaries for a good long time due to their primarily neutral and undisturbed position. This means I can pretty much field whatever I can afford and motivate myself to paint, initially, and yet have a good explanation for it. ;)

Ultimately, I expect I'll taper off at a half dozen to a dozen units initially, as that's about as much enthusiasm as I expect to generate for it without being close enough to prospective opponents to trigger an arm's race.

old-tidders said...

The initial aim is to have 8 battalions of infantry, 10 squadrons cavalry and 3 artillery batteries per side. Allowing me to vary the selection of units for small initial skirmish encounters in the border war. Eventually I'be adding some other small states for allies to add a bit more variety

Allan Tidmarsh